Piddington referendum hailed by former Labour adviser Lord Walney: ‘This is people making their voice heard!’

Former Labour adviser Lord Walney has backed the people of Piddington in their protests over plans to house more than a thousand migrants in their tiny community.

Speaking to GB News, the ex-political violence tsar reacted to Oxfordshire's landslide referendum declaring its independence from the United Kingdom.

Amid fears that 1,250 migrants would be housed at the nearby MoD Bicester, locals voted decisively to cut ties with the UK, with 285 out of 312 backing independence.

“This was people just getting their voice heard very effectively,” Lord Walney said.

“This is not about racism,” the peer continued.

“We have got to acknowledge that there are real problems when you are bringing young men in from cultures like Afghanistan, where attitudes to women are not what we would expect or want in this country.

“That it isn't racism,” he stressed again.

Reflecting on how Labour would respond, Lord Walney said: “I think the Government is listening to the extent that they can hear,” he said

The peer expected ministers would no longer ignore the “anxiety” felt by the Piddington residents.

However, he warned acknowledging those concerns did not necessarily mean the Government could resolve them immediately.

“Let's remember that the reason that army bases are being used is that it was rightly deemed completely unacceptable that hotels in town centres were being taken.

“But of course, wherever the people are moved to is going to cause real difficulties in the local communities now.

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He questioned: “So what does the government do?”

However, Lord Walney warned if centre-left and centre-right governments kept telling voters there was “nothing we can do”, they risked pushing the issue toward more extreme responses.

“The more there is a risk actually of handing this debate to people who are going to take some pretty unkind, overall detrimental solutions to this,” he said.

“That’s because the public will feel that the centre is not listening to them anymore.”

Speaking about Piddington after the bombshell referendum result, Mr Burnham said: "The only thing to do is to get the numbers down, the number of crossings down. And they are significantly down. They are now at a seven-year low.

"We also made a commitment to people to end the use of hotels to house refugees and asylum seekers, and that commitment needs to be honoured, and I think the vast majority of people say, 'Yeah, that really does need to proceed.'

"So this involves difficult decisions. It's about fairness across the country. I'm not saying that only one part of the country or one group of communities should do all of the work."

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